Lauderdale Code Battle Back In Court

Class-action Suit Claims Enforcement Violated Residents' Rights

May 28, 2006|By Brittany Wallman Staff Writer

FORT LAUDERDALE — Calling the city's code enforcement practices illegal, racially motivated and "mean-spirited," Legal Aid Service of Broward County has refiled a class-action lawsuit against the city.

Legal Aid attorney Sharon Bourassa is seeking class-action status for her lawsuit, saying that about 1,400 property owners in northwest Fort Lauderdale have been victimized by the city code enforcement's NEAT program.

NEAT, which stands for Neighborhood Enhancement Action Team, was an aggressive code sweep in which all code inspectors were sent door to door in three black neighborhoods -- Durrs, Home Beautiful Park and Dorsey Riverbend -- in late 2004 to cite any violations, such as patchy lawns, derelict cars, junk stored outside or missing address numerals.

The program led to a review by the U.S. Department of Justice, which closed its case and issued no findings.

U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages dismissed Legal Aid's original lawsuit in March.

Bourassa amended the suit and refiled last month. The city is trying to have the new lawsuit dismissed as well, and Bourassa filed a response to that motion last week.

The Legal Aid lawsuit focuses in part on the paperwork property owners receive when they are cited for code violations. The city's inspection report "contains a threat to have the plaintiffs arrested" if they don't fix the code violation in 30 days, the lawsuit says. But it doesn't tell them of a date, time and place for a hearing, the lawsuit states. The confusion and ambiguity amount to a violation of property owners' due process rights, according to the lawsuit.

Legal Aid also argues that the program amounted to "selective code enforcement and taking" of property without compensation.

"The city selected this area to accomplish its subterfuge to gentrify the neighborhood for redevelopment by developers working with the city, resulting in a `stealing of property,'" the lawsuit states.

Bourassa argues that the city "in bad faith" allows code fines to escalate, in hopes that owners will sell their devalued properties to private developers who have met with city officials about redeveloping northwest Fort Lauderdale. She argues that the code fines are essentially a "taking" of property, because owners feel compelled to sell as their property value decreases with the size of the fine.

Because northwest Fort Lauderdale is predominantly black, Bourassa argues that the city has violated the civil rights of black residents with its unprecedented code sweep.

She called NEAT "a mobilized effort to target a specific African American community close to downtown Fort Lauderdale and prime for high-rise condominium development."

City attorney Harry Stewart continued to dispute the claims made in the lawsuit, including the lawsuit's contention that in Rio Vista, white residents complained about strong code enforcement, and inspectors were pulled out of the neighborhood.

"The critical point is that nowhere in there do they say there's not any code violations," Stewart said. "The fact of the matter is there were code violations and we enforced it."

He also disputed Bourassa's argument that the city ignored code violations outside the black community.

"If you and I are going down U.S. 1 at 50 miles per hour, and I get a ticket and you don't, that's OK. That's just enforcement," Stewart said.

City officials have defended the NEAT program, saying hat it was a great success.

"It had resounding results," said Commissioner Carlton Moore, who represents northwest Fort Lauderdale but doesn't live in one of the neighborhoods targeted by NEAT.

City Manager George Gretsas told commissioners at their May 2 meeting that the city attorney recommended NEAT be done in another neighborhood of the city before resurrecting it in northwest Fort Lauderdale.

The city did take a version of the program, which some called "mini-NEAT," to the Middle River Terrace community last year. But that program differed in that inspectors did not go to every address.

In the case of NEAT, some community residents who were said to have asked for the program, such as William Dandy, lived in northwest neighborhoods outside the code sweep territory.

At the May 2 meeting, Mayor Jim Naugle asked the city's newest commissioner, Charlotte Rodstrom, if she wanted NEAT in her district, because she had complained of garbage dumping there.

But Rodstrom said she wasn't a "big fan" of NEAT.

Brittany Wallman can be reached at bwallman@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4541.